'Meth is Death' and 'Native Pride' essays to be part of student anthology

Two students of Woodfords Community Day School are having their school work published in the upcoming anthology, Celebrating What's Important to Me.

Woodfords Community Day School is a small program of the Alpine County Unified School District that works in conjunction with both Woodfords and Douglas high schools. The school was designed to assist students struggling at larger schools, providing a smaller, more personal environment where curriculum is formulated around each student's special needs.

According to Jim Parsons, superintendent of Alpine County Unified School District, nearly all of the school's older students in the last few years have gone on to graduate from Woodfords High School or Douglas High School.

The Woodfords Community Day School has two different branches: Its K-6 program and its 7-12 program.

Jackie Blaha has been teaching the latter for two years. Before Woodfords Day, she taught at Diamond Valley Elementary School. Last spring, Blaha assigned personal, one-page essays to her two students, 11th-grader Janean Skenandore, and eighth-grader Ridge Cruz. Impressed with the results, she sent the stories to Creative Communications Inc., a student-based publishing firm in Logan, Utah. Creative Communications accepted both students' essays.

Skenandore's essay, "Meth is Death," details various facts about methamphetamine use, and describes her encounter with a former user, an Indian woman who had horrifying stories to tell, including one incident when spider webs seemed to come alive and move towards her.

"The things that really got me were the pictures of meth users before and after using and how parents use it while their babies are in the home," Skenandore wrote in her essay.

Skenandore said she became interested in meth after viewing "Crystal Darkness," a film about the destructiveness of methamphetamines. Skenandore became so interested she later attended a drug-awareness conference in Reno, The Effects of Meth, where she met the former users she describes in her essay.

Skenandore, now a senior, plans on finishing high school and possibly going to college. She said she would like to become a pediatrician.

Cruz's essay, "Native Pride," is a reinvention of what it means to be Native American. As a Washoe-Paiute Indian, Cruz criticizes the derogatory things he's seen on Indian reservations, such as domestic abuse. He even criticizes some of the things he himself has participated in, like tagging public buildings. Cruz argues that real Native Pride comes from helping others and taking responsibility for one's actions.

"Native Pride is giving assistance and showing kindness whenever needed," Cruz wrote in his essay.

He said that writing the essay helped him grow up and see his own mistakes. He explained that when he was younger he hung out with the "cooler-looking people who did bad things" and got himself into trouble. Cruz said that he is trying to be a better person, and set a better example for his younger peers who now look up to him.

Cruz, now a freshman, plans on finishing high school and possibly pursuing a career in video game programming.

Both Skenandore and Cruz's essays will appear in the student-written anthology Celebrating What's Important to Me, set for release sometime next spring.

-- Scott Neuffer can be reached at sneuffer@recordcourier.com or 782-5121, ext. 217.